What is physics-atlas?

Physics Star Atlas turns four hundred years of physics history into a galaxy you can fly through in your web browser. Every physics theory is shown as a star, and lines between stars show who built on whose ideas, so you can trace how one discovery led to the next. You zoom and pan around the whole starfield, and clicking any star opens a hands on, real time simulation that teaches that theory. The galaxy contains 760 objects in total: 160 stars that each have a full profile covering a major theory, plus 600 smaller background stars representing lesser results. Six scientific subjects each form their own colored nebula, and 330 connecting lines map out this network of who influenced whom. Zooming works in four steps, starting with a wide view of the subject areas, moving closer to reveal star names and their connecting lines, and finally opening a detailed profile card for a single theory, all with smooth, gradual motion rather than sudden jumps. Seven interactive teaching stations, called deep space labs in the README, each walk through a step by step lesson built around one designed moment meant to surprise the learner. The topics covered are gravity, shown by flinging a planet into an elliptical orbit, Newton's laws of motion, Maxwell's electromagnetic field, the increase of entropy shown through reversed time, the double slit experiment sending one photon at a time, a light clock illustrating special relativity, and Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction. You can also switch between three ways of viewing the same data: as a galaxy, as a timeline laid out by year, or by physical scale from tiny particles up to the whole universe, with the display smoothly rearranging as you switch. Hovering a star highlights everything connected to it, clicking a subject label focuses on that whole field, and a search box lets you jump straight to a law or scientist by name. Three guided tour routes walk newcomers through specific storylines, such as what light is or how ideas moved from falling objects to black holes. The project is built with the Three.js graphics library and custom shaders, uses Vite to build the app and KaTeX to typeset equations, and each mini simulation is written as its own self contained module. To run it locally you install dependencies with npm and start a development server with one command.